Arizona With Oma

I love going to Arizona for a lot of reasons. The number one is to be home and see my Mom and Dad. If you didn't know my mom and dad are very different and love them for it. They both have unique talents and abilities and I am so glad I have both of them to help me though this journey of life. In the last post I talked about some adventures with my dad, but no visit would be much of a visit without Oma.

You see our Oma is who plays with us whenever Papa is not home. However, like any good mom because they are around all the time sometimes the adventures we have with them get glossed over because we take them for granted because our mom seems like she is always just right there. So, some of my adventures with my mom are simple like when she reads to my kids. If you didn't know my children love books, especially Kylee. I am pretty sure if you were to read to Kylee all day she would listen. Tia doesn't last that long, but I am always impressed at how well Tia will listen for how busy she is. Anyway, I also loved being read to as a kid. My mom reading a book is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, and I also love the sound of my mom's voice reading any other books. So, I love it when she will read to my kids. They love cuddling close to her and listening. Plus, my mom is great at slowing down and asking questions. It is awesome. Everyone loves story time with Oma.

Oma also knows a lot of great places to play. She took us to the splash pad in Thatcher. My girls are not usually real big slash pad people because they water is sprayey instead of surrounding them. So, I wasn't sure how this would go over, but it worked great. Tia's splash world was turned completely around when she finally went through the water. You want to know who she wanted to take her through--Oma. You know who willing went though with her Oma. Let me tell you Tia had a blast at the park and running through the spraying water and it all started with a run though with Oma. Kylee also had a great time and she loved the 'guns.' She loved to changed the direction of the water and squirt it where she wanted. We had a great time at the splash pad. We spend probably an hour and half there. That is amazing because most times it is significantly less than that.

One last great adventure I had with Oma was shopping. My clothes are getting worn out and I really do want to look cute and put together, but shopping with two kids is not my idea of fun. I do like shopping, but I like doing it with someone, but not with my kids so this gets tricky. Anyway, bless Oma's heart she took me shopping. It is true we just went up town (Safford), so there were only two stores, but she patiently watched my children  while I tried on everything I thought might look good. The trouble is almost none of it fit. However, it was good to try it all on. One store had a great spot with a movie and a couple other things in it and a lock on the little door to it, so the kids couldn't get out. Luckily I had Oma, so she could look out for the kiddo's but I thought this was a genius idea. After much trying on, I ended up only getting some basic stuff--black and white understhirts, and black and white nice t-shirts. However, I did try on a cute white dress that I wasn't quite sure about, but later ended up getting and I love it. The cut is so cute and it makes me look all girly. It is all white, so it is kind of risky to wear, but I feel really cute in it, so I guess its worth the risk. Anyway, I am so grateful that Oma took me shopping to get a few new things, because I really needed that. 

I love spending time with my mom. I love that we can just hangout together whether that is at the splash pad, the store, home on the couch, in the pool, or on the phone when we are apart. I love watching tv, and movies with my mom at night. My mom is a lot of what makes my home, my home. So grateful to have a wonderful Mom. Sadly our mom adventures are not documented as well. Oh well, maybe some day.

Arizona with Papa

I am currently sitting in my girls room blogging. I am doing this in hopes that it will convince them to stay in their room and go to sleep. You see we went to Arizona for the past couple of weeks and one of the many great things that happened there was my girls fell asleep IN their beds. The trick is Papa. You see Papa has a unique ability to lay on a tiny piece of the bed, tell a fascinating, but true story and then fall asleep for awhile. Then when he wakes up he is up for awhile then goes back to sleep for his nightly rest. This was such a treat for my girls, and Papa was such a sport to go lay by them every night. They loved his stories and company. I loved them as a girl, so I totally get where they are coming from. However, it makes it a little tough to bring them home and convince them to sleep in their beds. We have been working on it, and there have even been a couple times we haven't stayed with them and they feel asleep. It is so awesome.

In other awesome things with Papa, he took both his Friday's off work and played with us. The first Friday was a true Papa adventure. Papa, Kylee, Tia, and I got on the four-wheeler and rode back behind the house to what I call 'The Splice.' The Splice is a place where a long time ago a wash cut a a deep splice right through the foothill. It was pretty cool to see and I really wanted to hike through it, but the chances of rattlesnakes seemed to great, my girls were not interested, and even Papa seemed a little wary of following a path through a clay hill. Needless to say we didn't hike it, but if I was every there November-February I would be really tempted. Anyway, it was a fun ride, but part of it was in a pretty rocky wash bed, so Kylee was so done with bumpy four-wheeler rides.

A wide view of the splice.

Papa, Kylee, and Tia in the splice.

Tia, Papa, and me in the splice.

So, when we got home Papa asked if we wanted to go out on four-wheeler's again and Kylee said No, but when he offered a truck ride she was all for that. Kylee, Tia, Papa, and I climbed in the truck and we took the back roads to the Ft. Thomas bridge. Technically my Dad needed to look at it for work purposes, but it was still a great little place. The river was flowing but it was shallow there wasn't a lot of traffic. It was so great. Anyway, Papa had brought a few rods to try and figure out where the bottom of the bridge was so he was poking the long on in the girls took his short one to the other side and started hanging over it trying to touch the water with it. Sometimes I know where my kids get there ideas (like from me) and it doesn't actually make it any less scary. Anyway, we poked around from above for awhile, and then we decided to climb into the river bed and poke around from there. We did really good at staying dry until I let the girls put there feet in. Then you know how it goes--Tia squatted down instead of bending over, so her bum got wet. Then after watching the girls for a bit I had to put my feet in too. Then I had to see if I could wade across without getting wet. Which then Kylee followed and slipped on a rock and fell in. Then Tia wanted to come and crossed fine until the way back when she slipped and fell in. So, once the girls were wet like that it was pointless to not play, play in the river. I walked around more and enjoyed the water. The girls would jump up and land on their bums, or flop down on their bellies. They splashed. I helped them wade into some deeper spots. We had a blast. It was a great thing to do on such a hot morning. After we managed to barely keep the girls awake on the way home, we finally got home and went swimming in the pool to rinse all the sand off. I took a shower, so I could go to the temple later. Overall we made it sound like a great time because we Oma pretty jealous when we told her of our adventures when she got home from working at the temple.

Me, Tia, Kylee, and Papa driving along in the truck.

Tia hanging over the side trying to touch the water with the short stick. 

Papa, Tia, and Kylee 'playing' on the bridge.

Papa searching for the bottom of the bridge and Tia and Kylee playing.

Kylee and Tia in the river.

When your wet why not just sit?

Tired, dirty, wet Kylee and Tia in the truck.

The next Friday Papa had off we didn't get to go on quite the adventure because Papa needed to get to the temple and do an endowment session, so that we could seal a family together. However, being who he is he still took us out on four-wheelers. The girls really wanted to go 'shooting.' They asked Papa to get his 'gun' out for them. So, my dad decided that a pea shooter was probably as close as we need to get to using a gun at this age, and I agree. Anyway, we went to the dry spring and had the girls collect shotgun shells. They then lined them up on hay bale and tried to shoot them with the pea shooter. Kylee loved it! Tia had a hard time getting the coordination down for it, so she kind of lost interest. Papa and I also had a great time with it. I am not a good shot, but it was fun to try and shoot and then see where it ended up.

Papa showing the girls how this 'shooting' is done.

Papa and Tia 'shooting.'

Kylee 'shooting.'

The view on our way back.

My Dad is so great. I love going on what I call Papa Adventures. I love that it doesn't seem to matter how many times I go out with my Dad he manages to show me something else I never knew existed. I love how he loves the desert. I talk to a lot of people who think the desert is ugly, but to me it holds its own beauty and I love that my dad can show it to me. I also love that whining and heat doesn't really seem to bug my dad that much, so going on adventures with my kids in the summer is totally do able. I also love being able to just be with my dad. He is so wise and soft spoken it is awesome.

A Visit to Aunt Kitt's House

A couple Friday's ago, we went to visit our Aunt Kitt at her house. Tia has occupational therapy on Friday mornings down in Broomfield, which is a little less than halfway to Kitt's house. It was her off Friday, so we decided to go play and I am so glad we did. The traffic getting down there was a little heavier than expected, but not bad and we got there safe and sound. We got there a little bit before Kitt, so we had to wait for just a couple of minutes, but then the fun started.

The girls were so excited to go to Aunt Kitt's house. They were a little leary that I was going to leave them, but I assured them I was not and that I was just here to play with them and Kitt. So, we went into Kitt's house and of course the girls (mainly Tia) wanted to go swimming right away, but it was not warm enough yet. So, we decided to play games for a bit. We played Clue Jr. (Kylee's pick). It is too complex for Tia, so Kitt let her dig through her wallet and just play around on her own while we played. Then we played Curious George Matching. Tia loves this matching game. She loves it and she is good at it. So, we played that at least once, maybe twice. Then we finally caved and went swimming. It was a little chilly in the pool, but once we started swimming it was just fine. We swam and the girls showed Aunt Kitt all their new tricks. Kitt and I had a couple races and contests, so it was great. The girls however, started to get cold, so after keeping them in the pool as long as we could we hopped over to the hot tub. We relaxed in there for a bit and then convinced them to go back in the pool. We jumped in all together. Then I showed Kylee a cannonball. I am honestly not the best cannonballer but I am to a five year-old. So, Kylee was jumping in like crazy working on her cannonballs. Tia jumped for a little while, but then tired of that, so we went to the steps were she could stand and she wanted to swim and be chased and stuff like that. After awhile they tired of the pool, so we back to the hot tub. We sat in there for a bit, and tried to convince the girls to go jump in the pool again, but they refused. So, Kitt and I jumped in and then got out. We laid out on the sidewalk and enjoyed soaking up the heat from the pool deck. After warming there for a few minutes, we went up back up to Kitt's apartment for lunch. We changed and while lunch was cooking Kitt and the girls played 'Go Fish.' Kylee really likes that game and Tia likes it when she has some help to play. Anyway, eventually the Mac and Cheese, hotdogs, and peas were all ready and we had lunch. Then after that we had to get ready to go. I really wanted to stay longer, but I was trying really hard to be good and not break the "rules," so that when I ask if I can go do it again the answer runs a much a better chance of being a Yes.

It was super fun to go to Kitt's house. I had a blast just doing our thing, but doing it with Kitt and doing it somewhere else. I love having a sister, so close and having my kids be old enough that trips like this don't totally shake the foundation of our life. I don't know how long Kitt will stay close, but you know I love that she is here and close. Plus, now that I have proved to myself that I can drive down there and that it actually worked out really well it is a lot more tempting to go play, because it was fairly simple and, so worth it. Family is what it is about and I love that I get to be part of amazing families.